Recently I was talking with a successful serial entrepreneur and he commented that he looks for major trends when deciding on his next business. He described it as finding a big sand box that he likes and digging around in it until he finds a great opportunity — I agree completely. I like to think about it as focusing on a small, fast-growing market doing a zig zag until you find the best wave to ride.
Here are some big trends right now:
- Cloud computing
- Crowdsourcing
- Social media
- Mobile
- Location-based services
Those are some very generic trends. The idea is to find an angle or leading edge component within a trends and get ahead of the market. As for timing, 2-4 years early is often optimal.
What else? What are your thoughts on entrepreneurs that look to ride major trends?
David Cummings on Startups 
Entrepreneur would do what he believes is right, create a product/service that is missing on the market and he believes in. Investor would look for trends… So I’m a bit surprised that that’s the approach of successful entrepreneur, to me it sounds like an investment approach. My opinion at least. All best from Copenhagen.
I agree with you, the entrepreneur is searching to create something completely new. For good or bad.
I believe this is an excellent strategy, especially for serial entrepreneurs. Some of the best entrepreneurs are not the ones who created a completely new product; rather, they took an existing product and made it better. Ray Croc being the first to come to mind… He didn’t create the burger, yet there are McDonald’s in practically every city in America.